Porky's Duck Hunt
Porky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures. This short, starring Porky Pig, is also notable for being the first appearance of Daffy Duck. Plot Porky goes hunting for ducks one day after reading a book about it and getting all of the necessary items, like decoy ducks and gun shells. He checks out his hunting attire and leaves after practices how to hold a gun and accidentally scares his dog. He shows it that the gun isn't loaded and ends up accidentally shooting the ceiling. The neighbor from upstairs then punches him before taking his leave, revealing where he got shot. At the hunting grounds, Porky informs his dog to be quiet and he aims for a lone duck he spots. Unfortunately, so do a million other hunters who all miss. One hunter even shoots down two planes! Porky takes out the decoys from his box and puts them into the water. As he turns his back he doesn't see a strange duck appear and it messes with him by quacking, then freezing every time Porky looks for him. After this goes on for a few minutes, Porky resorts to tying one of the decoys onto the top of his head and gets into the water. He approaches the other decoy ducks and sneaks up on the black duck he suspected of being a real duck. As he aims his gun at it, the duck hops up and prepares to be shot. But when a bunch of water shoots out he quickly flees onto a barrel of beer. Porky shoots the barrel, causing all of the content inside to spill into the water. The result ends with many fish drunk. To the point of walking onto shore and into a boat, swimming along the top of the lake and they all begin to sing until they swim behind a huge amount of brush. Porky comments on how strange this is but thinks nothing of the bizarre fish. He resumes trying to find the duck and while peeking through some of the grass, the duck bites his nose! Porky takes a shot at it and cheers upon hitting the duck. He sends his dog after the duck to retrieve it but upon return, Porky sees his dog passed out with the duck carrying it. The duck puts it down and swims away as Porky informs him it wasn't in the script. The duck then tells him of how crazy he is before bouncing away in the distance. Meanwhile, an electric eel (as pointed out by a sign) swims by and the duck eats it, thinking it was something else. The resulting shocks send the duck all over the place while Porky decides to have a lunch break. As soon as he puts down his rifle, a whole bunch of ducks appear on the boat. The moment he picks up his rifle the ducks all fly away and he accidentally shoots his boat, causing a big hole in it and tipping it over. A strange man comes out of the water and shows Porky the duck he was using before leaving. Back on land, the dog quietly tries to get Porky to come over to it and they find the duck in the water, again awaiting gun-fire. But as it stalls, the duck takes the rifle from Porky and tries to shoot it. It shoots and he again bounces off into the distance before flying away. Porky tries multiple times to shoot at it but he misses with each shot. In a final attempt he tries to use a duck call but is shot at by all of the hunters. He throws the duck call which accidentally gets swallowed by the dog, causing him to hiccup. And with each hiccup, more rifles shoot at the two who flee in terror. As they walk home in defeat, Porky keeps glaring at the poor pooch until he goes inside and shuts the door. Suddenly hearing ducks, Porky rushes back to see many of the ducks seemingly taunting him by flying around in the sky. Porky tries to shoot at them but he is out of shells. He tosses the gun, which then shoots the ceiling again. His neighbor from above comes yet again and punches Porky in the nose. The cartoon ends with Daffy dancing and bouncing around the "That's All Folks!" title card (see "Censorship"). Availability *VHS - Daffy Duck: The Nuttiness Continues (time-compressed) *DVD - The Essential Daffy Duck Gallery Trivia Notes *This is the first cartoon in which Mel Blanc voices both Porky and Daffy. Blanc won the part of Porky and voiced him in "Picador Porky" earlier that year. Joe Dougherty who was Porky's original voice, was fired following the cartoon "Porky's Romance" because he couldn't control his stutter. *This is the first performance of the song "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" sung by Daffy. He sings it again in the cartoon "Daffy Duck & Egghead", though this one has more lyrics. Censorship * The ending card with Daffy dancing and bouncing around the "That's All Folks!" title was cut from Sunset Production prints due to their involvement with Warner Bros. The redrawn version of this cartoon (which was shown on Nickelodeon) removed the ending card as well, replacing it with the abstract, late 1960s Looney Tunes cards while the audio played as normal. The 1990 computer-colorized version that airs on Cartoon Network and Boomerang restores the original opening and closing credits (including the end gag). External Links Category:Black-and-white shorts Category:Shorts Category:Films Category:Animated shorts Category:Looney Tunes Category:Looney Tunes shorts Category:Daffy Duck Category:Daffy Duck shorts Category:Porky Pig shorts Category:Porky Pig Category:Daffy and Porky shorts Category:Porky and Daffy shorts Category:1937 films Category:1937 shorts Category:Leon Schlesinger Studios Category:Warner Bros. Cartoons Category:Warner Bros. Animation Category:Vitaphone short films Category:Directed by Tex Avery Category:Leon Schlesinger Productions Category:Produced by Leon Schlesinger